Afghan Biographies

Kuran Wa Munjan District Badakshan Province

Name

Kuran Wa Munjan District Badakshan Province

Ethnic backgr.

Date of birth

Function/Grade

District Police Chief

History and Biodata

Kuran va Munjan Koran va Monjan Karan-wa-Minjan Kuran Wa Munjan District Keran wa Menjan Kiran Manjan Badakhshan Province police Chief Keran wa Manjan:
Commander Abdul Malik and his militia were assimilated into the Afghan police force to bring them under government control. Commander Malik was made district police chief.(20100700). An intelligence source alleged that the former mujaheddin fighter against the Soviet occupation in the 1980s turned a blind eye to Taliban troops on his land to protect his lapis lazuli mines. An agreement struck by Commander Malik, police chief of the Kuran Wa Munjan district in Badakhshan, allowed the Taliban to move through his territory into neighbouring provinces.

Abdul Malik and Ghulam Nasir, both jehadi commanders, are local rival armed strongmen. Their supporters fiought each other.(20111121) The followers of Nasir claimed Malik controlled the lapis lazuli mine in the district and was exploiting it. Some people oppose Malik being police chief, said Col. Amanullah, Jurm police district chief, who was sent to Karan Wa Manjan to investigate the incident. Abdul Malek has paid nearly $5 million in protection money to the Taliban over the last two years (2015/2016) from his mining proceeds.

A clash erupted between the armed men of Abdul Qadir and Abdul Malik after an argument over the extraction of azure mine in Awi area of Kuran-wa-Munjan District, Badakhshan Province. yesterday. The skirmish left two people from the group of Abdul Qadir killed and two from Abdul Malik’s group wounded.(20150721)

Col. Ahmad Shah previously served as the Keran wa Menjan district police chief. He was a resident of Yamgan district but he had been living in the Keran wa Menjan district for the past one year (2016/2017). Shah returned to his home in Yamgan and pledged his allegiance to the Taliban rumors said. But provincial deputy police chief Col. Mohammad Nabi Bayan said Shah was jobless and returned to his Yamgan home on Tuesday, Apr 4, 2017.

Shah’s home in Yamgan is in an area where the Taliban are in control.(20170406)

More background:
The Taliban has claimed responsibility for an attack, which also claimed the lives of six Americans, a German and two Afghan interpreters. The attack happened in the Kuran Wa Munjan district of Badakhshan province in Afghanistan.(20100807) The District lies on the international border between Afghanistan and Pakistan.
Ruling out presence of Taliban in the Karan-u-Minjan district of the northeastern Badakhshan province, officials acknowledged armed groups were in control of azure mine in the district. In Sar-i Sang, Kuran Wa Munjan District, where much of the world's finest lapis lazuli is mined. The mining settlement is marked Sar-i Sang on maps, which locals call Mahdani Lojward (lapis lazuli mines) in Dari. (20140120)
Security officials claim they have seized 65 trucks ferrying illegally extracted azure in northeastern Badakhshan province, blaming the smuggling on influential individuals. Local officials say azure is extracted from a mine located in Keran wa Menjan district and smuggled by trucks to Faizabad, the provincial capital.

Illegal commanders, including Abdul Malik and Mohammad Sharif, partially controlled the deposits since 2015. He said the commanders and their men were extracting the precious stone in a nonprofessional way. January 2015, Abdul Zahir Mujaddedi, the police chief for Yamgan district, tried to retake control of the Keran wa Menjan mine but he lost five police personnel to a fight with Commander Abdul Malik. Mohammad Akbar Noori, mines and petroleum director, said they had stopped receiving tax from trucks carrying azure stones after the president suspended contract with the Lajawardin extraction company. He said the company won the contract three years ago but faced problems after illegal commanders attacked it. Noori said a private firm made expensive jewelry from the stone and exported some of them to Kabul for processing.

Local commanders buy guns and ammunitions with income from these mines. Some 3,000 illegal gunmen surround the mines. Up to a 40 percent of the income goes to the Taliban based in the Jurm district.

Deputy Governor Baidar said: “The Taliban get around a 40 percent of the income. Now they are in total control of Khostak locality of Jurm.”

A contract for extraction of the stone was awarded to a local mining company 15 years back, but local officials say a part of the mines is controlled by Commander Abdul Malik.

The deposits in Badakhshan are estimated to hold around 1,290 tonnes of azure. Afghanistan produces around five to ten tonnes of the precious stone annually and a major portion of it is exported to neighboring countries.

The azure in Badakhshan is known globally for its high quality. Lapis lazuli takes an excellent polish and can be made into jewelry, carvings, boxes, mosaics, ornaments, and vases.(20150216)